Google DeepMind's 'AlphaGo' Program Defeats Human Go Champion For The First Time Ever

Google DeepMind’s ‘AlphaGo’ Program Defeats Human Go Champion For The First Time Ever

In 1997, IBM’s supercomputer “Deep Blue” famously defeated reigning chess champion Garry Kasparov in a heavily publicized match that marked a significant breakthrough in the field of machine learning. Two decades on, computers have learned to master backgammon and several Atari video games, such as Breakout, Pinball, Space Invaders and Pong. Now, in another milestone in machine learning and pattern recognition, a computer program developed by researchers at the Alphabet-owned Google DeepMind division defeated the three-time European champion of the ancient Chinese game Go — which has long been considered the most challenging game for a computer to master. The team that developed the computer program, named AlphaGo, detailed the findings in an article published in the journal Nature. Go is believed to have been invented in China nearly 2,500…